How this “non-coder” used Cursor to add AI to retro hardware
Maddie Reese is a vibe coder, hardware tinkerer, and builder. She builds things at the intersection of software and hardware, including a thermal receipt printer that people around the world can message directly, a fully functional Twitter pager running on a Raspberry Pi, and a personal API that tells you her coffee order so you don’t have to ask. Maddie approaches hardware the same way she approaches software: dump the idea into Cursor, let it interview her, get a shopping list, triple-check the parts before buying, and build. She got her start after her dad introduced her to Lovable, and she locked herself in her room and didn’t come up for air. *What you’ll learn:* 1. How Maddie built a thermal receipt printer that accepts messages from anywhere in the world using a Raspberry Pi and Bluetooth 2. How to use Cursor’s agent view to brainstorm a hardware project 3. What belongs in a personal API and why agents, not just humans, will be the ones using it 4. How to read just enough code to do some damage, without needing to understand all of it 5. Why building for fun, not practicality, is the fastest path to actually shipping physical projects *Brought to you by:* Firecrawl—Power AI agents with clean web data: https://firecrawl.dev/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=partner&utm_campaign=how_i_ai Customer.io—Build customer engagement campaigns from a single prompt: https://www.customer.io/howiai *In this episode, we cover:* (00:00) Intro (02:00) Maddie’s AI pill moment (03:53) The thermal receipt printer: live demo and how it works (11:10) The pager project (17:23) Why she uses Cursor’s clean agent view instead of terminals and browsers (19:05) The personal API: coffee order, pets, favorite snacks, and more (22:57) Lightning round and final thoughts *Blog and detailed workflow walkthroughs from this episode:* Building a Pager Printer and Personal API with AI: https://www.chatprd.ai/how-i-ai/building-a-pager-printer-and-personal-api-with-ai ↳ How to Build a Physical Inbox with a Raspberry Pi: https://www.chatprd.ai/how-i-ai/workflows/how-to-build-a-physical-inbox-with-a-raspberry-pi ↳ How to Get Twitter/X Notifications on a Retro ’90s Pager: https://www.chatprd.ai/how-i-ai/workflows/how-to-get-twitter-x-notifications-on-a-retro-90s-pager *Tools referenced:* • Cursor: https://www.cursor.com/ • Lovable: https://lovable.dev/ • Raspberry Pi: https://www.raspberrypi.com/ • Resend: https://resend.com/ • Cloudflare Workers: https://workers.cloudflare.com/ • Supabase (Conduct database referenced): https://supabase.com/ • Twitter/X API: https://developer.x.com/ • Spoke pager network: https://www.spoke.com/ • OpenClaw: https://openclaw.ai/ *Where to find Maddie Reese:* Website: https://maddiedreese.com Message her directly: https://maddiedreese.com/message X: https://x.com/maddiedreese *Where to find Claire Vo:* ChatPRD: https://www.chatprd.ai/ Website: https://clairevo.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairevo/ X: https://x.com/clairevo _Production and marketing by https://penname.co/._ _For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email jordan@penname.co._
